Sundowns are champions of the ‘Good Night Cup’
The curtain finally fell on the spectacle of the Soweto Derby cup when Mamelodi Sundowns were crowned champions of the Carling Black Label Cup after beating Orlando Pirates 4-0 at the FNB Stadium.
Orlando Pirates was made to endure 90 minutes of torture as it chased shadows against a slick Mamelodi Sundowns in the Carling Black Label Cup final on November 12.
The Ghosts, who were down to 10 men earlier on, were humbled 4–0 in the cup competition that has become famously known as the ‘Goodnight Cup’.
The scoreline could have been worse and even more than a dozen goals had the Yellow Machine converted every attempt at scoring.
This final competition of the Carling Black Label Cup has been a decade-long traditional off-season contest between the two Soweto giants of the Sea Robbers and AmaKhosi Amahle.
In the coming 2023/24 season of the DStv Premiership, the Carling Black Label beer brand will be sponsoring the now-defunct Telkom Knockout which will be known as the Carling Knockout Cup.
As a farewell send-off for the traditional off-season Soweto Derby, the beer brand decided to open the floodgates for all premiership clubs to be voted in to take part in the Goodnight Cup with a marketing line known as Avulekile Amasango [the floodgates are wide open].
The top four teams that garnered the most votes to play in the competition were AmaZulu, Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns, with AmaKhosi topping the leaderboard followed by The Ghosts of Orlando, Masandawana and lastly, Usuthu Olumabheshu Ankone for AmaZulu.
In the first semi-final, Masandawana easily despatched Usuthu 3–0, the first of which was scored in just eight minutes of the game. In the second semi-final, the Soweto derby, AmaKhosi and Amabhakaniya needed penalties to separate the boys from the men, and Amabhakaniya became the men on the day.
AmaKhosi edged out Usuthu on penalties to grab third sport.
